Abundant Life

Romans

Romans 7: Good Versus Evil

Since the development of the novel in the eighteenth century, one of the most common of all literary devices has been to focus on the struggle involved in the duality of man. Some have simply termed it ""good v. evil"" while others have pushed it to the extreme of ""selling the soul to the devil."" It is the driving force behind thousands of stories, films and all manner of forms of entertainment, from Stevenson's ""Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde"" to the original ""Star Wars"" trilogy.

The Bible, not surprisingly, does not ignore the battle which rages within man regarding good and evil. Indeed, in the earliest days of man's existence, God tells Cain as his anger burns against Abel, ""Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it"" (Gen. 4:6-7, emphasis added).

Throughout the story of God's people, we are reminded over and over of the struggle to ""master sin."" Esau allows his desire to control him, causing him to sell his birthright (Gen. 25:29-34). Joshua calls on the people to ""choose"" whom they would serve (Josh. 24). Solomon allowed his heart to be turned away from God by his desire for foreign women (1 Kings 11). We could cite innumerable examples, but the point is that God's people have never been exempt from, and in fact are sometimes more troubled by (because of Satan's desire)the struggle between good and evil.

All of which makes Paul's discussion of Romans 7 so much more important. Other than some the apocalyptic literature, perhaps no passage of scripture has been more abused and misused than this short treatise on the dual nature of man. In fact, its abuse has led to it being used as a cornerstone for the movement known as Calvinism, which has affected and infected most denominations which claim to wear the name Christian.

Rather than being an argument for the total depravity (corruption, wickedness) of mankind, however, what Paul serves up in this chapter is a grand example of the struggle we all face, as well as the formula for victory in that struggle. This is no depressing resignation to the ""fact"" of our unalterable wickedness, but a tremendous, faith-inspiring portrait of the Christian who, while not perfect, presses on in Christ Jesus.

Paul begins in verse 7 by discussing the law and its purpose, as opposed to sin and its counter-purpose. It is not the law which is evil, but sin; the law merely pointed out what was wrong. In other words, when there is no commandment, there can be no sin, but just because the commandment, pointed out sin, it did not produce sin. Sin is dead (v. 8) when there is no law, but when there is law, and I sin, I die and sin lives (v. 9). Thus the commandment, designed to bring life (v.10; Jn. 10:10; 1 Jn. 5:3), produced instead, death for me, because sin killed me. He finishes this argument by pronouncing the commandment holy and righteous and good (v. 12). Verse 13, then begs the question of whether that which is good (law) caused me to die, a question Paul answers, ""May it never be!"" Instead, sin by causing my death, is shown by the commandment to be wholly, utterly evil. This battle has no gray area, where the lines are blurred and choices are ambiguous. One way is good and leads to life, the other is evil and leads to death. In actuality, Paul has simplified things by drawing such bold boundary lines between the law and sin.

It is in verse 14 then, that Paul takes up the battle within man, beginning with the knowledge that ""I am of flesh, sold into to sin."" It is here that the Calvinist, like the Gnostic before him, fails in understanding the point of Paul's writing. When Paul says, ""I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate,"" he does not mean ""I cannot do what I would like to do."" Rather than surrendering to a ""depraved nature,"" Paul is bewailing his own failure to do what he would like to do. A totally depraved man has no inner struggle, because he does exactly as he pleases. Only someone striving to obey God understands the weight of this struggle, because that person ""agree(s) with the law, confessing that it is good"" (v. 16). When he says that sin ""indwells me"" (v. 17), he means that he has given himself over to sin, that it is controlling him, just as one who ""let(s) the word of Christ richly dwell within"" (Col. 3:16) is controlled by that word. One indwelled by sin is not incapable of doing right, just as one who is indwelled by His word is not incapable of doing wrong. When Paul steps back to view his life, he sees the violent struggle between what he knows to be good, and what his lusts want for him. Here is where the need for self-control is manifested, for the desires of man are not in and of themselves evil. A man whose desire is for food is not wrong, but a man whose desire causes him to steal in order to eat is most certainly wrong. The sexual desire, expressed in its proper context (marriage), is not wrong, but when it produces fornication or adultery or homosexuality, it is sin. It is in this context that Paul can claim, ""For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind, and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members"" (vv. 22-23). Why are there so many stories about this struggle? Because people lose this battle everyday, because people sell their souls everyday.

Here is despair, not because we are totally depraved, without the ability to come to God, but because we see the law, that it is good, and still we sin. We see the importance of serving God, but we give in instead to our own lusts, bringing about death. It is just this despair which causes Paul to cry out in anguish, ""Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?"" (v. 24).

If Paul's words ended here, the story of mankind would be fulfilled in tragedy, but remember, this chapter is about victory, and after asking this riveting, perplexing question, Paul answers with tremendous confidence, ""Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!"" (v. 25). He goes on, in chapter 8, to detail the freedom we now have from sin. He has been building to this point from the beginning of the letter to the Romans, and in Christ, he proclaims us victorious in the struggle between good and evil.

We know that we are involved in a war. And we are aware that our adversary is strong (1 Pet. 5:8), but it is important to know that we have an advocate in this fight. We have a Savior who has already won (1 Cor. 15; Heb. 2), and we can be victorious through Him, just as Paul was. We need not shy away from this inspiring text, leaving it to all manner of false doctrine, but instead, we should embrace it, examining it in the light of our own struggles with sin and doubt. We must never give up.